Is unraveling a loss of control, or the start of freedom? What lives in the untied space?
Knots and Loose Ends
Charlene Lim (Admin Executive)
A ball of yarn is just a clump of strings
Interwoven so neatly it somehow holds its shape.
But looks can be deceiving—you don’t know how messy it gets inside.
As the yarn loosens, possibilities appear.
Until…I pull—nothing. I pull harder—still nothing.
A knot… (hold that thought)…Hmmm, I’m stuck.
And so begins the untangling project.
Trying to find where it went wrong.
The tangled mess left me an untangled mess.
Right. I was supposed to make something. *doing, doing, doing*
Oh no, I’m running out of yarn and steam.
Oh yeaa—a knot can connect two ends.
Loose ends are opportunities to reach out with.
Unravelling creates problems and opportunities
You might not know what you’re making yet.
You might get stuck.
You might run out of steam.
But there are still threads left.
And if you run out? You just go find more. In your own terms.
Chiharu Shiota
The Network Within
2026
Bronze, red wool
Part of Flesh and Bones: The Art of Anatomy by ArtScience Museum, Singapore
To Cut to Bloom
Audrey Desmond (Marketing Lead)
Letting go almost never feels like progress—it feels like a massive loss. Stepping away from a path, relationship, or identity built over years is unsettling. Yet, much like a flower that must be cut back before it can bloom again, clinging to everything eventually leaves life heavy, exhausted, and stuck. The empty space left after the cut feels precarious at first, but it is not an ending. Unraveling, to me, is disengaging from holding the past, creating space to move forward and grow into whatever comes next.
From another side…
Ricky Sim (Artistic Director)
This song resonates with me differently as I get older. I think about the people who have passed through my life… the meals we shared, places we travelled to, conversations that once seemed so ordinary. With time, some of these memories have become more vivid, while the relationships themselves have naturally changed. Listening to Joni Mitchell sing Both Sides, Now later in her life, I am drawn to how the same words seem to carry a different weight with age. Perhaps growing older is partly about seeing familiar moments again, but from another side.
Not Everything Needs an Ending
Esther Ong (Company Manager)
There is comfort in closure.
A quarrel feels like it should end with a resolution. A test should come with a pass or fail. A completed project should lead to an outcome. Having an answer makes things feel settled, as though every loose end has been neatly tied.
But life does not always offer that kind of ending.
Some conversations remain unresolved. Some questions are left unanswered. Some efforts do not lead to the outcome we imagined. The instinct is often to return, to understand, to fix, to find a way to complete what feels unfinished.
Perhaps unraveling is learning not to.
To leave a loose end without turning it into a knot. To accept that something can end without being resolved.
Maybe that is what lives in the untied space—not an answer, but the freedom of no longer needing one.
Chiharu Shiota, Uncertain Journey, 2016/2019.
Image/source: Chiharu Shiota
Dance of the machine
Matthew Goh (Company Dancer)
Artificial Intelligence can generate quirky and weird content that sometimes disrupts conventional norms and stereotypes. But how far can the unconventional be pushed before we perceive it as strange or awful? As we watch this ‘ballet,’ could we ponder whether this is still the classical form we know, or maybe it is the avant-garde counterpart—contemporary dance—or if it is even dance?
Transforming Disruption
Ricky Sim (Artistic Director)
A major disagreement, a change in priorities, or even a life event can throw a relationship off balance. It’s never easy. But I’ve come to see that disruption, as painful as it is, often leads to growth. These moments force us to face what we’ve been avoiding—our insecurities, needs, or unresolved issues. I’ve found that disruption can spark deeper conversations and bring about real change. In the end, it often makes the connection more honest and meaningful.